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Tony La Russa overused his fair share of relievers. It's weird to say so, since his most lasting fame will come from carving every pitching role into tiny slices, but if you look at the Cardinals who've made the most relief appearances since 1996 you'll find a lot of weird seasons to half-remember from his tenure.

Early on you'll find a ton of long relievers, a role modern bullpens have largely La Russa'd out of existence—Manny Aybar threw 97 innings in 65 games, Mark Petkovsek 96 in 55, John Frascatore 95 in 69, all before 2000. In the middle years you'll see Steve Kline and Ray King.

All the way through you'll see guys getting leaned on like the Cardinals are leaning on Trevor Rosenthal and Carlos Martinez now. Here's every righty between 2000 and 2011 who threw at least 65 games for the Cardinals, organized by batters faced. I apologize for jarring all your Gene Stechschulte memories loose.

Player

G

Year

Age

G

SV

IP

H

R

ER

BB

SO

ERA

BF

1

Ryan Franklin

74

2008

35

74

17

78.2

86

34

31

30

51

3.55

346

2

Dave Veres

71

2002

35

71

4

82.2

67

34

32

39

68

3.48

346

3

Kyle McClellan

68

2008

24

68

1

75.2

79

37

34

26

59

4.04

327

4

Ryan Franklin

69

2007

34

69

1

80

70

28

27

11

44

3.04

317

5

Dave Veres

71

2000

33

71

29

75.2

65

26

24

25

67

2.85

310

6

Izzy

74

2004

31

74

47

75.1

55

27

24

23

71

2.87

308

7

B. Looper

69

2006

31

69

0

73.1

76

30

29

20

41

3.56

308

8

Kyle McClellan

68

2010

26

68

2

75.1

58

20

19

23

60

2.27

307

9

Mike Timlin

67

2001

35

67

3

72.2

78

35

33

19

47

4.09

307

10

Stechschulte

67

2001

27

67

6

70

71

35

30

30

51

3.86

301

11

F. Salas

68

2011

26

68

24

75

50

20

19

21

75

2.28

295

12

Kyle McClellan

66

2009

25

66

3

66.2

56

27

25

34

51

3.38

288

13

Dave Veres

71

2001

34

71

15

65.2

57

29

27

28

61

3.7

279

14

Julian Tavarez

74

2005

32

74

4

65.2

68

28

25

19

47

3.43

278

15

Jason Motte

78

2011

29

78

9

68

49

22

17

16

63

2.25

268

16

Julian Tavarez

77

2004

31

77

4

64.1

57

21

17

19

48

2.38

268

17

Russ Springer

76

2007

38

76

0

66

41

18

16

19

66

2.18

257

18

Jason Motte

69

2009

27

69

0

56.2

57

32

30

23

54

4.76

244

19

Al Reyes

65

2005

34

65

3

62.2

38

15

15

20

67

2.15

244

20

Russ Springer

70

2008

39

70

0

50.1

39

14

13

18

45

2.32

205

Now here's the Mike Matheny list, organized by batters faced.

Player

GR

Year

Age

G

SV

IP

H

R

ER

BB

SO

ERA

BF

1

T. Rosenthal

74

2013

23

74

3

75.1

63

25

22

20

108

2.63

311

2

Mitchell Boggs

78

2012

28

78

0

73.1

56

20

18

21

58

2.21

296

3

Jason Motte

67

2012

30

67

42

72

49

23

22

17

86

2.75

279

4

F. Salas

65

2012

27

65

0

58.2

56

28

28

27

60

4.3

256

5

Edward Mujica

65

2013

29

65

37

64.2

60

20

20

5

46

2.78

255

6

Seth Maness

66

2013

24

66

1

62

65

17

16

13

35

2.32

249

Now here's the difference:

Mike Matheny plays favorites. In two full years as manager Matheny has qualified six players for this chart; La Russa had 20 in 12. This year Carlos Martinez, Trevor Rosenthal, and Pat Neshek (and Kevin Siegrist, from the left side) are on pace to qualify. #Mubogmot isn't just a great piece of Photoshop work, it's a usage pattern.

Tony La Russa loved old guys. It verges a little too much on the Gladwellian to laud Tony La Russa for his unwavering loyalty to baby boomers after 15 years of rolling our eyes at it, but look at that Tony La Russa list—Kyle McClellan, may he rest in peace, is the only guy on it under 25.

Ryan Franklin, Dave Veres, Braden Looper, Jason Isringhausen—in exchange for a steady job a year or two after they deserved to have one, Tony La Russa worked his aging relief pitchers like Boxer the Horse.

Trevor Rosenthal is on pace to throw 77 innings this year, and if he doesn't bring his walk rate down he's on pace to face 337 batters while doing it. For Carlos Martinez, who is 22 years old, those numbers are 85 and 348.

This isn't about portraying Tony La Russa as an enlightened young-arm conservationist; whether by luck or design he rarely had the chance to ruin a young arm, so it's hard to say what would have happened if Jimmy Journell or Blake Hawksworth had reached the major leagues with his faculties intact. Things hardly turned out well for Kyle McClellan.

This is what it's about: Mike Matheny has found himself in a terrible situation, one where his third most-dependable right-handed reliever is Pat Neshek and his fourth is nobody knows. And he's dealt with it by using Trevor Rosenthal and Carlos Martinez like they're Ryan Franklin.

Tony La Russa was a major league manager for 19 years before he showed up in St. Louis, and I'm sure he had learned a lot of hard lessons by then. I hope Mike Matheny learns fast.